As I have always had an affinity with flowers and foliage, my Christmas designs often follow that theme, although from time to time, I opt for a landscape. Obviously the choice of Christmas-related blooms is limited; the most obvious choices being poinsettia, snowdrops, winter jasmine and hellebores, along with holly, ivy and mistletoe. Your design and layout is important as you need to create a pleasing composition. Placement is key, as the design should have impact – a tiny image floating in space is not suitable.

How to compose your card

This square design incorporated flowers and foliage, worked on the border of the shape, leaving a space in the centre for a greeting. The poinsettia was placed at the base to add weight to the design along with the holly berries and the richness of the dark leaves. Hellebores come in a variety of shades of pink to white, whereas the mistletoe is a delicate green, although ivy could be used instead.

This is a more complicated format. Variations can be placed in the different boxes, although it is advisable to keep a balance of colour throughout as one brightly coloured box could distract the eye.

This design uses boxes again, but the images are varied or house different views of one flower. The permutations are endless.

Grouping a mass of flowers and foliage in a vase is a classic design. Here the poinsettias need to be interspersed throughout to maintain a balance as they are such a dominant colour. Adding other flowers and foliage makes a complicated painting, which would be time-consuming to produce. Where you have lots of flowers included, ensure they are positioned in different directions, and not all facing you. Natural grouping is advisable.

This is a simple group, but pleasing to the eye and the content can vary.